With all of them here I finished up my game and called everyone to the front along with Sarah. They were all sitting at a couple of the tables while I was standing. Looking over them, some of them had a shocked look while others still had a neutral look. Nodding, I started talking.
“To start with, if you have not identified me yet then please do now.”
The ones who had not all did and you could see when they read my title. All of them had their own look of shock, confusion or disbelief.
“Now before you all start asking questions let me speak.”
They all nodded and let me continue.
“I made contact with the giant tree behind us and met the dungeon master. In doing so I was given the option of being the dungeon handler and accepted the proposition. I will not go into more detail than that for the time being. All you need to know is that this title puts a target on my back. Also because of where the dungeon is and how this is the closest still standing building it is prime real estate for those who wish to use the dungeon to amass power.”
Looking over them all once again there were a variety of faces. Some stoic others concerned and some shocked.
“The reason I was not around until now was I wanted to see how things worked out before we informed you of my title. Seeing how things have gone, me and Sarah thought it would be fine. Really I could not hide away forever. You and some of the customers would start to ask questions and things would begin to get weird.
Like I said before this building is now prime real estate and I have good reason to believe that the local gangs and even new ones will try to take over this building. But you all do not need to worry about that. Not only was I given some abilities to defend myself and the dungeon for being the handler but I myself have some unique abilities.”
Some of them seemed skeptical so to drive the point home I activated the power aura of Presence of an Ancient. All of them had a look of terror and all started to sweet.
“Now as long as you work with or for me I will defend you. No harm will fall to you while I am still standing. Tonight I will be helping out in the kitchen doing dishes and the like. Should any commotion you can not handle happen I will take action. But I would like to keep out of it if I can. I want to wait for the right moment for my entry.”
I sighed and looked at each of my employees individually. It was here I decided to change my plans up. I was going to wait but it felt right to do this now.
“I’m going to be frank with you. The world has changed and will keep changing. Those who are willing to take power will rule over those who do not. With the power I hold I would like to try and carve out a small claim of normalcy here.
I would like to believe that I have treated you all well while you have worked here and I will continue to as long as you do. If you do not want to be a part of the risk and chaos that is sure to come to our doors you are free to leave. If you would like to be a part of the future I'm planning to build here, stay and potentially gain static and power you would not have otherwise. This does not come without risk. I will not lie but my question to you is would you rather live on your knees or die on your feet.”
I finished looking over the 10 people who came back to work most likely hoping things would quickly go back to normal. But I think I shattered that belief in them. I was not going to lie to them, it would be unfair of me.
I looked across them once again all but Sarah in deep compilation. The twins got up and walked to a nearby table to discuss in more privacy. The rest sat where they were and thought. I'm glad I had Sarah tell them to come in early today. With the band coming to set up later it would be awkward if the band came in the middle of the speech.
They all took their sweet time. After a while I walked back to the pool table and started playing again. I noticed once I walked away they started asking Sarah questions and talking among themselves. At one point the twins joined them again and the 10 plus Sarah were in deep discussion. I just continued my game of pool, once again scratching on the 8 ball.
I don't know how much time had passed but the band had arrived. Seeing them arrive I cleaned up the table and made my way to the office on the first floor and left the rest to Sarah. A little after it was opening time I made my way to the kitchen and got to work cleaning any dishes that needed to be cleaned. Lucky for me I was able to hear the band. They were really good. Maybe they got some skills or a class but I don't know. The night went on without a hitch from the volume of dishes I had to do. I assumed it was close to a full house.
When the night was over I finished up the dishes and I made my way out to the floor. Looking down at my hands I laughed. My hands were comically wrinkly from washing dishes all night. Looking up I saw everyone happily chatting. I walked over to them and they noticed me. Sarah stood up and away from them. I stood in front of them as they all nodded to each other and Edward stood. I was guessing he was going to speak for them.
“We all have discussed your offer. With some clarification from Sarah on a couple of things we all came to a tentative decision. You are right the world has massively changed and it is not done changing. We as people just have not fully understood that change yet. I at least believe we will soon see things that we only thought were in horror stories happen. With that being said we are willing and happy to join you but we all have a couple of requests.”
I was happy they decided to help me. Having a small trusted group to work with will make life so much easier. Sarah is really smart and useful but she can only do so much. Same with me, I can only do so much. I can’t run everything myself if all goes to plan. I need people to help me and I believe that this group of people I have hired, worked with, talked to and in a way became friends with would be a great group to do this with. There are a couple of people I keep forgetting to call that I would also like to have but that is for later.
“And what might these requests be?”
“First we would like to have the protection you offered us be extended to our family and close friends. Second if at all possible we would like to move closer to you. Third, we would like to go into the dungeon to strengthen ourselves as soon as possible, so we may better defend ourselves. And lastly we do not want you to be keeping secrets from us within reason. I can tell that Sarah knows more than us and I doubt she even knows most of what you do. I know we all have our secrets but how can we work with you if we do not know who we are working with.”
I nodded to their demands. They were for the most part reasonable. The only ones that worry me are the first and last one. I don't know who they all consider their family and close friends. Is it just here direct family and grandparents or is it all their cousins too. Also close friends, is it just one or two, or are we talking about a group of 5 or 6 for each of them? I may be powerful but right now defending that many people will be difficult. I can’t be everywhere at once.
As for the last one. I don't know. I have been keeping secrets for millennia and it seems that some of them will be getting out whether I want to or not. But to spill so many secrets so early… I sighed to myself and got on with it.
“For your first request I will do my best but remember I am just one person and I can not be everywhere. There are 10 of you and if each of you has a family of 4 including yourself that alone is another 30 other people I need to look after. Let alone extended family or grandparents. Then close friends as well I don't know who or how many that may include for all I know we could be looking at greater than 100 people. For your second request for the time being my hands are tied. I can see if I can purchase the buildings around us or we can wait until they become vacant. But in the short term we can go find some blow up beds and coughs and set them up here. As for the dungeon we will be waiting on that. First I don't know what combat skills any of you have or how dangerous the dungeon will be. Also I would like to talk to the dungeon master again before we go in and I will not be able to contact her until Tuesday. Now your last request.” I sighed to myself, made a split second dissection that could be the death of me and deactivated my hidden in plain sight skill.
“Go ahead and identify me again.”
They looked confused at first but in the next second all of them gasped.
“My name is Viviana Justina Ioannou, a two thousand year old vampire progenitor, and I am asking you to help me build a seat of power for ourselves before someone does it for us and forces us under their rule.”
This morning I was not planning on bringing them under the fold like I have now. I wanted to wait and maybe ease the idea to them. But that's not how it turned out. Originally I wanted to give them a heads up about people coming here about the dungeon. But that might have led to them just walking away not wanting to be in danger. So in a last minute decision I laid it all out for them. If they knew they had a source of protection in me then I believed they could be swayed.
I must say that the look on all of their faces was worth it. The complete and total shock on all of their faces was quite amusing. Their faces did not stay in shock for long though. They then shifted to confusion, fear, terror and then finally landed on understanding but still had a hint of fear underneath.
Fun fact vampires don't have as good of a sense of smell as a lot of fictions like to portray. We do have a better sense of smell then any human but nothing too crazy like being able to smell lies or emotions. All of that is true fiction. Now there are some creatures out there that can but not vampires. So even though I can see the emotions on their face I can't smell them.
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I took a few steps back to give them some more space to stew in the new information. This was the moment of truth. If they turned away now I would be in trouble. I did not want to kill them but I might have to if they refused. I can't have my secret out yet. If I could swear them to secrecy I would but… I don't know, we will see if it comes to that. Then again would people believe them? Maybe I think people will be more willing to accept the unimaginable at the moment but still I might be able to convince people they are crazy.
But anyways, if they're willing to join me even with all that was in front of them I believe I will have a group of trusted individuals to help me.
Seeing that they wanted to discuss some more I walked over to the pool table and got on with another solo game. I had barely finished a game when I saw Sarah waving me back over.
I pulled a chair over this time and sat. I had the feeling I was about to answer a lot of questions. Edward, still speaking for the group, started.
"Ok to start this off, are you really two thousand years old?"
"No, I'm older, I just found out the exact age when we got the system. I am 2135 years of age."
Edward nodded thoughtfully at that and moved on.
"Since you are a vampire and I'm assuming the part about needing blood is true, how often do you need to feed and does it have to be human?"
"It's best if I feed at least once a week. I can have other blood but depending on what it is it is not as filling. Humans being the one of the most filling. Also it just tastes the best."
I gave them an award winning smile slightly extending my fangs. Shaking himself off from my comment and smiling he continued.
"What other myths and such are true about vampires? Such as the sun and bats."
"I am unique among vampires. I am one of the oldest living vampires and as such have adapted and evolved. For starters yes the sun can be deadly to vampires but over many years they can adapt. For instance I can walk out in the sun and instead of bursting into flames I am just weakened. For others they burn extremely easily, and some mostly those that are younger will have their skin start to boil for exposure that lasts more than a couple of minutes. It took me the better part of 500 years of work to be where I am now and that was me actively trying to adapt and work on it. For others it would take longer some shorter for others it may never happen.
As for bats it's a load of bull shit simple as that no shape shifting outside of fangs, hair and eye color.
As for eye and hair color that comes with how we grow stronger depending on how perfect the night is so to speak. For example, say on a scale 1 to 10 my day time strength is a 1 and my night time strength on a new moon that is cloudy I'm a 4. But during a clear sky blue moon I'm an 8. I grow stronger with the night. The closer to a perfect night gets the whiter my hair gets and my eyes grow closer to a blood red. But it does this when I take advantage of the night's power. That's why you have never seen it before.
Next, new vampires are no stronger than they were as humans. Yes at night they will be stronger but as a base line they are no stronger. What makes vampires stronger is our strength never decays. For example if I train to lift 1000 pounds then don't train for 3 years I will still be able to lift it as easily as the day I achieved it. Also we do not bulk up like humans for the most part we keep our figure. But like humans we have the same problem of it taking exponentially longer to get stronger. Going from 100 to 200 is much easier than going from 1100 to1200.
The last thing you need to know is that vampire blood holds power. My blood line being both a progenitor and one of the oldest holds a lot of power. Along with my direct children's blood and turned. Then again this is true for most ancient beings like dragons. The longer lived and the more amassed power the more the power the blood holds. It's just more important for vampires."
All of them were nodding along with what I said until I mentioned dragons. They once again were all shocked. But Edward gathered himself, sighed and asked another question.
"Well seeing you brought up dragons care to elaborate?"
"What? Did you all not see the system notification about the world boss?" Looking over them they all nodded. And Angie spoke up.
"I don't know about the rest of you but me and Grace just thought it was someone who claimed to be the dragon king or something like that." There was nodding and shrugs. Seeing this I went on.
"Not all of your myths and legends are such. Some of them are real. As fair as I know everything about the gods is not real or some fay having fun with human lives. But the rest have merit. So to name a couple dragons, phoenixes, krakens, and witches are all real.
They simply moved more into the shadows as humans became more dominant. But be warned most if not all of the legends understate the power of these beings. No single normal human even today with the possible exception of dropping a nuke on them could kill a mature dragon or Phoenix. Even then I would still not count on it. Most immortals or legendary creatures are really powerful. Vampires are among the weakest of the immortals. Even in the perfect night I could not bring down a mature dragon or phoenix and if everything went right I might be able to trade my life for the life of a kraken and a young one at that.
The biggest advantage that vampires have is it is easy to make more of us and it's relatively easy for us to meld with human society. Not only do we still have the same reproductive cycle as humans and can reproduce with them but we can turn humans into vampires and some other creatures. While dragons only reproduce about every 10 years and it takes upwards of 100 years to reach maturity. Though they do tend to have a number of children when they do. But like I said do not ever underestimate a dragon they will rip you a new one before you even get the chance to piss yourself. System or not they are one of the apex predators of this world and I don't think that is going to change any time soon.”
I really do hope they take my words to heart. If they piss off a phoenix or dragon there is jack all I can do about it. I shuddered a little thinking what level Esmeralda might be. If I was level 63 I can't imagine she is any lower than 500. Edward and the rest of them seemed satisfied with my answer and maybe a little scared. Sarah was the same as I had not explained this to her either.
“What are both your long and short term plans Viviana? I get the basics of what you want to do right now. You want to, so to speak, stake your claim and build a sphere of influence around the dungeon. But what are the details of your plan? And if you end up succeeding with that, what comes after?” Edward moved the conversation right along.
“You got it for the most part. To start with I want to keep what I am under wraps.” I reactivated Hidden in plain sight as I said that.
“I don't want people knocking on my door to kill the evil vampire or have other immortals coming to kill me. No matter how hard you try you will make enemies when you have lived as long as me. Anyways the goal is to get the local population on our side and use just enough force to keep the gangs out of our hair. By being the normalizing presence those who don't want life to change will back us and with the dungeon those who want a change or adventure can do that through the dungeon. Once we are in better control we will work on uprooting other groups trying to amass power in the area. In doing this we will secure our seat of power. After that it depends on how things around us work out. Will the U.S. government still be standing or will it turn into a bunch of city stats around dungeons or other important resources. It all depends.
As for the plan to explain my power we are going to claims that it was given strength from the dungeon. This is also not a lie. I was given abilities to help defend the dungeon when I became its handler but we don't want people to know what I am. Also if there are any lie detection skills out there this will help us avoid them.”
Edward looked thoughtful as he listened to what I had to say. He was going to be very helpful in the future. Or maybe he will be helpful now.
“I think that is good but may I suggest something.” he looked me in the eye and I nodded.
“Please correct me if I’m wrong but I can’t imagine you don't have an impressive amount of wealth.” I nodded again and he continued.
“While things are somewhat normal and the dollar is still worth something I would buy a large amount of digital storage, the best PCs you can rapidly get your hands on and start downloading as much information from online as you can. You never know when we won’t have access to it anymore. Also buy the land around us as well and start stockpiling resources like things for building. Wood, wire, nails and the like. Also things to grow food. I don't think water will be as important because I don't doubt that we can find someone who is able to create water. I believe that a class will allow someone to conger water.
The rest we don't know if they are going to be easy or hard to come by after a couple of months or if our correct currency will be worth anything. Also solar panels or any kind of renewable energy source. If the power grid goes down we would want to be insulated from it. I'm sure we could brainstorm some more things but that is what I can think of off the top of my head.”
I am so glad I told them about my plan. I didn't think of that. Well I did kinda but it was not my first thought. I was focused on what other people might do to us and how best to take advantage of that, not what we should do to prepare after.
“That is a really good point. If you are done with your questions we can start work on that right now. I have more money then I know what to do with even with the stock market tanking the way it is. I only have this bar just to try something new. Anyways we can go to the nearest tech store and I can talk to the neighbors and give them enough money for their buildings to retire 10 times over. After that we can look at raiding a hardware store.”
Cameron raised her hand after I was done talking and I smiled at her. “The floor is yours Cameron.”
She blushed a little and spoke. “This is not really on topic but based on your level you have a very high strength stat how do you not break everything that you touch?”
That was a good point to make. Assuming stats are handed out regularly people are about to get much stronger real fast and that could become a problem.
“Well to start with I slowly gained my power of two thousand years so it was a steady controlled increase in strength i could get used to. But with the system, learning to control one's strength could become an issue. When you all start gaining more stats we will work on how to control your strength like I said my situation was much different than yours but there are some things I have learned over the years that should help you. So, are there any more questions?”
They all looked at each other and Edward said. “What about our families?”
I sighed. “We can have them move in the buildings I buy. We can also have them help us if any of them have useful trades that could go a long way especially if they get a class for it. If we start working they could level up and we could increase our power base with that. But I would like you to keep what I am to yourselves but feel free to tell them I'm the handler of the dungeon and have been granted power because of it. That will not only set the rumor train going but help convince them of your words.”
Grace piped up after I was done talking. “Oh, our dad is an electrician. I bet he would be helpful.”
Trevor spoke up. ”My mom is a computer tech and she has some programmer friends. I'm sure they would be helpful with the computers.”
The rest of them began telling me about family or friends that had useful skills that could help us.
When they all finished talking we hammered out what they were to tell to their relatives and friends and left. I think things are going to go well. Me and Sarah then went up stairs to start on research about the local landowners and how all the local shops were holding up and If they had been stripped yet or not.